Engineers use compression (also called source coding or source encoding) to reduce the bit rate of digital video. Compression decreases the cost of storing and transmitting video information by converting the information into a lower bit rate form. Decompression (also called decoding) reconstructs a version of the original information from the compressed form. A “codec” is an encoder/decoder system.
Over the last two decades, various video codec standards have been adopted, including the ITU-T H.261, H.262 (MPEG-2 or ISO/IEC 13818-2), H.263 and H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC or ISO/IEC 14496-10) standards, the MPEG-1 (ISO/IEC 11172-2) and MPEG-4 Visual (ISO/IEC 14496-2) standards, and the SMPTE 421M (VC-1) standard. More recently, the HEVC standard (ITU-T H.265 or ISO/IEC 23008-2) has been approved. Extensions to the HEVC standard (e.g., for scalable video coding/decoding, for coding/decoding of video with higher fidelity in terms of sample bit depth or chroma sampling rate, or for multi-view coding/decoding) are currently under development. A video codec standard typically defines options for the syntax of an encoded video bitstream, detailing parameters in the bitstream when particular features are used in encoding and decoding. In many cases, a video codec standard also provides details about the decoding operations a decoder should perform to achieve conforming results in decoding. Aside from codec standards, various proprietary codec formats define other options for the syntax of an encoded video bitstream and corresponding decoding operations.
Intra block copy (“BC”) is a prediction mode under development for HEVC extensions. For intra BC prediction mode, the sample values of a current block of a picture are predicted using previously reconstructed sample values in the same picture. A block vector (“BV”) indicates a displacement from the current block to a region of the picture that includes the previously reconstructed sample values used for prediction. The BV is signaled in the bitstream. Intra BC prediction is a form of intra-picture prediction—intra BC prediction for a block of a picture does not use any sample values other than sample values in the same picture.
As currently specified in draft extensions to the HEVC standard and implemented in some reference software for the draft extensions to the HEVC standard, intra BC prediction mode has several problems. For example, encoder-side decisions about how to use intra BC prediction are not made effectively. As another example, BV values are not signaled efficiently in many scenarios.